The lynching of Bob Costas

Who would have ever thought that a simple, elegant, yet sobering statement at a Sunday night NFL game would cause the commotion of the century and bring down condemnation so bigoted, so skewed, and so hate filled that Lucifer himself has had to rise up from the depths of Hell just to take it all in? So what exactly did Bob Costas say that has so many in the Right Wing World now calling for his resignation? Here is the verbiage that according to some is worthy of a good tar and feathering:

“Those who need tragedies to continually recalibrate their sense of proportion about sports, would seem to have little hope of ever truly achieving perspective. You want some actual perspective on this? Well a bit of it comes from the Kansas City-based writer Jason Whitlock, with whom I do not always agree, but who today, said it so well that we may as well just quote or paraphrase from the end of this article. “Our current gun culture,” Whitlock wrote, “ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more and more teenage boys bloodied and dead. Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it. In the coming days, Jovan Belcher’s, (and its possible connection to football), will be analyzed. Who knows? But here, (wrote Jason Whitlock) is where I believe, If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.”

And so there they are, the candid, somber, softly spoken words, wrapped in the truth and the reality of the troubled times that we all find ourselves living in as we travel through this journey called life. The vitriol and the pure hatred that has been thrown at Bob Costas is both baffling and staggering if one only stops to look at it on the surface, but when one stops to really take a look at what is really going on, and where the anger is coming from, the smoke is cleared, and you can plainly and clearly see what is going on here.

The reality that is before us all is that the United States is a country that has ignored it’s demons for far too long, and now the chickens have come home to roost. In this country we now have a group of people who went to bed one night and woke up to find that the America where they believed that they had the right to mistreat, say, and do anything they wanted to other people based on the color of their skin, or the God that they chose to worship, or who they chose to love is no more. Those days are over, and they are not coming back.

In reality, our beautiful America did not change overnight, she has been changing over the decades, but those who are now filled to capacity with an anger that they can’t even contain long enough to give the impression that they are decent people, capable of a rational thought process, chose to ignore the truth and the reality that was unfolding right in front of their eyes.

In all of the years that I have been in this world, I have never in my life seen the level of hatred and bigotry that I see now. Hate and bigotry has blanketed our nation like a sheet of snow on the coldest of winter mornings. That hate and bigotry has turned into a cancer with far reaching arms that is feasting on the very souls of those who refuse to accept a changing America, an America where her people are accepting of each other, and appreciate a diversity of thoughts, cultures and skin color.

Bob Costas attempted to start a much needed conversation in this country, not necessarily about guns, but the types of laws that in many ways support and incite others to all too often seek out and take the lives of those that they deem less worthy of life, perhaps because of their creed, their sexual orientation or the color of their skin. In reality, Costas may have gotten a pass on his commentary if it were not for the fact that he referenced the tragic shooting of Jordan Davis, the 17-year-old BLACK teen who was shot and killed as he sat in a car with his friends following an argument with a 45-year-old white man over loud music. Although Costas never used a name, it would have been impossible for anyone listening to his message not to connect the dots.

America is a country that is a melting pot of people of all shades, cultures, and ideas. Our diversity and ability to learn from each other, and share our cultures and traditions, is what makes us the greatest nation on Earth. Those who choose to wallow in the trenches of hatred and bigotry may continue to stay angry at the world, because a Black man sits in the White House, and even more so because Blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans joined forces to put him there. I personally take comfort in the fact that the angry people who have the belief that although America was built on the backs of all people who live here, the country was only built for them will never again in this country have the power that they have had for so long ever again.

I understand one simple truth, and that is fear manifests itself as anger. People fear what they don’t know, and they fear what they cannot comprehend. So there it is, Bob Costas became the latest target of a group of people whose ideas, and lack of complexity in their thinking, have made them the minorities in this country, and they are afraid, because of their past behaviors, because of their in-ability to change, and because they have lost control of groups of people that they never had the right to rule over in the first place.

Sensible Sue’s Rhetoric

I had someone from the Right Wing posse tell me on Sunday, “We are coming back, and the dream is dead.” I thought to myself, how sad and pathetic it is that this little person believes that one man is responsible for progress. And how sad it is, that this pitiful little soul believes that all of our hopes rested in the back of Dr. King; Too bad that the poor thing does not realize that America’s heroes in the fight for civil rights and justice were men and women of all colors and creeds. They were people that understood then and understand now, that we are al-ways better and stronger when we work together.

One final thought, as it relates to Dr. King and his dream for America. Men die, but dreams live on for an eternity. Sometimes they are laid down for a decade or two, but a dream where all people are treated with dignity and respect will always be picked up and carried forward.

Sensible Sue would love to hear from you so please send emails to sensiblesuesrhetoric@gmail.com. You can also send her a tweet at @sensible333.